Is that winter sniffle the result of a virus, a chill or maybe something else? Health Watch's Teya Skae explores some interesting avenues in Part 1.

Looking at the causes Now that the winter season is well and truly here, most of the population is expected to catch a cold during winter. The humble cold is one of the most common illnesses, leading to more doctor visits and absences from school and work than any other illness every year.

So what causes us to catch colds? In actuality, we do not really "catch" a cold but, rather, we become infected with a cold/flu bacteria or a virus.

When we function at our optimal level, our immune system - which protects us from invading bacteria and other micro-organisms - can cope. But when we are stressed our immune system is greatly challenged and that is when we spiral downwards because our healthy body frequency range is lowered, allowing the invading microbes to take over our system.

What do we mean by Healthy Frequency Range? Frequency is a measurable rate of electrical energy that is constant between any two points. Every living thing has a frequency, including our brain and our bodies. Electrical frequency is measured in hertz (Hz), kilohertz (kHz), and megahertz (MHz). The average frequency of a healthy human body is between 62 and 78Hz.

How we do we know all this? In 1992, Bruce Tainio of Tainio Technology, a division of Eastern Washington State University, developed new equipment to measure electrical frequency in humans and foods. This equipment was used in a research study at Johns Hopkins University to determine the relationships between frequency and diseases. Tainio found the average frequency of a human body is between 62 and 78Hz - the upper body being 70-78Hz and the lower 62-70Hz.

Further support for these findings is given by Dr Robert Becker MD in his book, The Body Electric who also explains that a person's health can be determined by the frequency of their body.

Another doctor and scientist, whose research has been buried for some time but has managed to resurface due to the work of avid supporters, is Dr Royal Raymond Rife MD, who developed a frequency generator in the late 1920s. In brief, Rife successfully treated 1,000 patients diagnosed with incurable cancer in the 1930s. He was honoured with 14 awards and an honorary doctorate. After the unsuccessful attempt by pharmaceutical companies to buy out his research and equipment, his office was ransacked, his research paperwork was stolen and the machine that healed all those 1,000 "incurable" cancer patients was destroyed.

In 1934, before this destruction occurred, the University of Southern California appointed a Special Medical Research Committee to bring terminal cancer patients from Pasadena County Hospital to Rife's San Diego Laboratory and clinic for treatment. The team included doctors and pathologists assigned to examine the patients - if still alive - in 90 days.

After the 90 days of treatment, the Committee concluded that 86.5% of the patients had been completely cured. The treatment was then adjusted and the remaining 13.5% of the patients also responded within the next four weeks. The total recovery rate using Rife's technology was 100 per cent. (See www.rife.org)

What Rife had developed was a 100 per cent effective cure for many forms of cancer. So why do we not know about this and why are there so many cancer research foundations in existence? Put simply, it is due to the economic motives of the orthodox medical community, which relies on funding for cancer research - such funding often coming from pharmaceutical companies - and whose fortunes would be damaged if a cure for cancer was found. (That is, it's OK to search for a cure but don't really find one!) This is a story that illustrates yet another grand attempt by the mainstream medical community to control the lives - and deaths - of so many millions of people today.

"In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine (1937)

What Rife proved is that every health disorder has a frequency, which in turn responds (resonates) to a specific (optimal) frequency for its dissolving/healing in the body. People who maintain their optimal frequency, at least of their immune system, would prevent the development of symptoms and illnesses associated with the common cold. Of course, in practice this does not work for most of us because, being human, we experience stress and emotional challenges on a daily basis, which lower our body frequency. Hence, we need to raise our body frequency regularly and even daily with the right substances that are compatible at the cellular/energetic level of our being, rather than wait until our body frequency has dropped so low that it becomes a friendly host for microscopic invaders.

How can we prove this? According to a report (Epidemiology, May 2001; 11:345-349) psychological stress - particularly the chronic type that may accompany a personality with a negative outlook - is a risk factor for contracting colds. An optimistic outlook and outgoing personality seemed to protect individuals, investigators found.

The findings indicate that high levels of psychological stress are closely associated with contracting the common cold. While the common cold is rarely a serious health hazard, it is responsible for about 30 million days of lost work in the US alone each year.

To investigate whether stress increased the likelihood of developing a cold, the researchers surveyed more than 1,100 Spanish university staff and students at regular intervals over a one year period. The study focused on different types of stress, including stress from life events, perceived stress, having a generally negative outlook, anxious or compulsive personality, compared with having a positive outlook and attitude to life.

Individuals with a negative outlook were at greatest risk of developing colds - regardless of their intake of vitamin C and zinc or their smoking and drinking habits.

The next highest-risk individuals were those who believed that they were under stress. These people were nearly three times as likely to develop a cold, according to the report.

Why Should I Avoid An Antibiotic? Colds can be contracted as the result of contact with more than 200 different viruses. However, among all of the cold viruses, the rhinovirus and the coronavirus cause most colds. Each time you have a cold, it is caused by a distinct virus (eg adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, and coronavirus). Viruses are much smaller than bacteria. They are tiny clusters of genetic material surrounded by a protein "wrapper".

Medical science currently does not have any drugs that can kill these viruses. Antibiotics, including penicillin, do not have any effect on viruses. They are only used to treat secondary bacterial infections that can further complicate the effects of a cold.

How Do We Actually Contract the Cold? The most common source of infection is not from coughing or sneezing, or walking barefoot in the rain, but from hand-to-hand contact. That is why, when you have a cold, washing your hands frequently is very important. The likelihood of contracting the cold virus increases, however, if you are overtired and physically exhausted.

Most uncomplicated colds last eight to nine days; about 25 per cent last two weeks; and five to ten per cent last three weeks.As long as your temperature remains below 38.8 degrees Celsius, there is no need to lower it. Cold viruses do not reproduce at higher body temperatures. In fact, a slight fever should help us get rid of the virus quicker and feel better much sooner. It is our body's own way of ridding itself of toxins.

Why are Aspirin and Tylenol counterproductive? A study (J Infect Dis, Dec 1990; 162(6):1277-82) showed that people who take aspirin and Tylenol (acetaminophen) suppress their body's ability to produce antibodies that destroy the cold virus. This actually causes the body to take longer to fight the cold and it accounts for any secondary infections and post-nasal drip.

What Can We Do to Avoid A Cold? While orthodox medicine does not have the answer for colds and 'flu, nature does - and it comes in the form of pure organic unadulterated Therapeutic Essential Oils. Why? Because they are made up of very high frequency molecules (ranging from 52MHz to 320MHz) and contain nature's wisdom and power to raise the body's frequency and to assist our immune system to fight viral invasions.

For greater clarity, organic Therapeutic Essential Oils are not the same as everyday aromatherapy oils, which are produced for fragrant and other purposes.

Part 2, in the next issue, will examine in detail the research on the use of Therapeutic Essential Oils in the prevention and treatment of colds/flu/viruses.